


Harry Potter & the Equestria Girls (Tales for April)

by ClaireVioletThorpe



Series: Fanfiction in a Year, Volume 1 [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, April Showers 2015, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Female Friendship, Female Harry Potter, Gen, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, references to Mean Girls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-30
Packaged: 2018-03-21 04:32:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 20,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3677598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaireVioletThorpe/pseuds/ClaireVioletThorpe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a parody/crossover of "Harry Potter" and "My Little Pony: Equestria Girls", Harry Potter is pushed through a magical mirror and enters a strange new world , where he is turned into a teenage girl and is forced to attend a regular high school. There, he must learn to make new friends and defect the school bully in the homecoming election.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not a Second Before

Five days passed after the incident in the Department of Mysteries. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were walking in the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The majority of the school's population glared at them with anger. The students assumed they were responsible for the disappearance of Jacquel Romanov. Jacquel was a student at the school and the best friend of the trio. Some students claimed the trio killed her while others claimed she escaped from them. Several people claimed that Lord Voldemort captured her and held her hostage in his castle to lure the trio out of Hogwarts.

But none of those rumors could be confirmed.

Having said that, there's more to the story.

Cassidy Newfield came from an alternative world intending to take over the wizarding world. No one knew she was there. If they had noticed her, they didn't say anything. Cassidy wore a traditional school uniform, but she wasn't wearing a robe. She sat in a small room staring into a magical mirror in the corner of the room.

As Harry was walking towards that small room, he said, "I don't get why everyone here seems to be angry with us. It's not like Jacquel asked to be captured. Something isn't right here and we need to find her."

He wasn't wrong there; as the trio walked down the halls, the other students glared at them with anger. Harry didn't know why, but more than a few people were beginning to think of him as a villain instead of a hero. Ron's sister Ginny couldn't look him in the eye anymore. To make things worse, Jacquel's cousins Julia Black, Stacey Snape, and Jaden Kastianopolis left Hogwarts to find her.

In short, things were bad for Harry Potter.

"You're right, Harry," said Ron. "But let's not worry too much about Jacquel. She'll find a way to get herself out of this situation. She always does."

Just then, a shadow was seen on the wall. The trio turned around and they gasped what they saw. Standing before them was a girl wearing a school uniform and a pair of leather black boots. She had long blond hair, sharp green eyes, and a face that could melt the paint off the walls.

She smiled at them in a cruel way, as if she knew she had won the race. "Who are you?" said Hermione.

"My name doesn't matter to scum like you," said the girl. "All I know is that you three have been nothing but trouble for the last few years, and I think it's time for one of you to go."

"Who are you and what have you done with Jacquel?" Harry snapped.

"Oh, I haven't done anything with her...yet," said the girl. "But I'm coming for you, Harry Potter."

"Why me?" said Harry. "What have I done to you?"

"You think you can pretend to be the hero while you're a sham, like you're too good to follow the rules and be like everyone else," said the girl. "Well, I have a place for people like you, who think they can do what they want to do and everybody else doesn't count."

"You can't do anything to him," yelled Ron. "He's Harry Potter, the boy who defeated the Dark Lord! You can't do anything to him! Professor Dumbledore will stop you!"

"Professor Dumbledore will do nothing," said the girl, "because I will take his favorite student from him!"

"You can't do that!" said Hermione as Hedwig, Harry's pet owl, flew onto Harry's shoulder. Little did they know that they were in the room with the magical mirror. If they did, this would be a different story.

"You just watch," said the girl as she pushed Harry into the mirror. Ron and Hermione could only watch in horror as Harry fell through the mirror, screaming as he fell. The strange girl also jumped into the mirror; as she did, the mirror became a large pile of dust.

When the dust settled, Ron and Hermione were staring at the blank space where Harry had once stood. They couldn't believe that Harry Potter was gone forever and they failed to stop the girl or save him. Worst of all, there was no way they could save Harry.

To make matters worse, Dumbledore came into the room, saying, "I thought I heard something strange in here. What happened?"

"You did," said Ron. "A strange girl showed up here and attacked us for no reason. Harry's gone."

"Gone, you say?" Dumbledore cried out in horror. "As in completely gone?" Ron and Hermione nodded. "How did * **that** * happen?"

"Some girl came in here and kidnapped Harry," said Hermione. "Then she broke the mirror so we can't go into the mirror and rescue him."

"I see," said Dumbledore. "Where is the mirror in question?"

Hermione pointed to the floor, where the remains of the mirror were. Dumbledore stared at the pile of dust for a long time. Ron and Hermione watched him, not knowing what he was going to do next. Would he at least try to repair the mirror and find Harry?

Dumbledore stood up and said, "We're going to repair that mirror and get our students back. It doesn't matter who took them or why they disappeared. Harry and Jacquel must be returned to us immediately!"

He swept away from the room with a stern warning to "not let anyone else know of this incident". Ron and Hermione knew that things were going to change since Harry Potter was no longer at Hogwarts...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we go with a different story. This time, however, Harry now has to play through the entire story as a girl. But does he have what it takes to survive this story?


	2. A Girl I Am

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry discovers a terrifying truth about himself in this scene.

Harry found himself waking up on the cold hard ground. The ground was in front of a huge bronze sculpture; the sculpture was of a great and powerful wizard. Yet, the words on the plaque underneath the statue were written in a  language Harry didn't understand. _Who was this wizard and why did I land in front of a statue that was dedicated to him,_ Harry thought. _Why is there a statue of him in this place?_

"Where am I?" he said to himself. He had no idea that the place he was now was completely different. The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and the grass was green. He realized he was in a local park, as he saw benches, trees, and picnic tables scattered everywhere.

"Harry? Harry?" a voice called to him. He stared at the statue, and a strange boy stared back at him. The boy was pale with white hair and yellow eyes. He wore a black shirt and black pants.

"Who are you?" Harry said with fear and anticipation.

"It's me, Hedwig, your owl, remember?" said Hedwig.

"Uh, why are you a boy?" Harry said as he stared at the owl...I mean, boy.

"Who knows?" said Hedwig. "But we better get you someplace safe, because people are beginning to notice."

"Notice what?" said Harry.

"You might need to take a good look in the mirror," said Hedwig.

Harry looked in the mirror again; instead of a boy with messed-up hair, poor glasses, and wearing extra-large clothes, he saw a girl with reddish-brown hair, pale skin, and brown eyes. She wore a red shirt, a red and yellow plaid skirt, long gray socks, and black shoes.

He was a girl.

Harry Potter was now a girl.

Harry did the only thing a normal boy would do in his situation. He screamed.

* * *

"Now explain to me why you felt like you had to cover this up?" Professor McGonagall snarled as she faced Professor Dumbledore. Rumors about the disappearance of Harry Potter began to spread, thanks to Neville Longbottom (who saw the attack on Harry and his friends and told McGonagall). She was furious that Professor Dumbledore would hide the truth about why Harry disappeared and pretend the disappearance never happened.

"You know why I had to hide the truth about Harry's disappearance," said Dumbledore. "If anyone found out that we lost Harry Potter, there would be no end to the nightmare that would engulf our school. There would be inquiries, investigations, and possible arrests. I'm not going to mention the high inquisitor and what she has to say regarding Harry's activities over the term."

"But that doesn't give you the right to cover up his disappearance and swear Ron and Hermione to secrecy regarding their friend's disappearance," said McGonagall. "In fact, I'm receiving letters from concerned parents about the safety of Hogwarts. I wonder what I should say to those parents who might want to remove their chidlren from Hogwarts."

"Your job is to reassure the parents that everything is fine at Hogwarts," said Dumbledore. "There's nothing wrong with the school, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"And what is your answer regarding the disappearance of Miss Romanov and her cousins?" said McGonagall. "What will you say to her uncle when he marches into this school, demanding to know where she went?"

"I don't care for her or them," said Dumbledore. "As far as I can tell, they can stay away from my school," said Dumbledore. "I never liked those Trichenbergs with their advanced spellcasting; Miss Romanov is no better than any of them! Good riddance to them, I say! I hope they never return here!"

"I'm warning you now, Albus, nothing good is going to come from your lies," said McGonagall in anger. "A day will come when you will lose everything that you've worked for. And when that happens, not even I will help you."

Dumbledore collapsed in his chair in shock as she walked out the door. He should have known that nothing good was going to come from his lies, and he didn't want to mention that he and Harry parted on bad terms.

For the first time in his life, Albus Dumbledore didn't know what to do.

* * *

After several minutes of listening to Harry scream, Hedwig gripped Harry's arm, causing the screaming to stop. He said, "That's enough, Harry! You can't be screaming like that! Not in public!"

"Why not?" said Harry.

"People will notice," said Hedwig, "and the last thing we need for ourselves is to be made into a spectacle. Now calm down."

"Will you let me go?" Harry cried out.

"Only if you promise that you won't scream again," said Hedwig.

He let Harry go, and they both stood up. Hedwig, however, knew that he would have a fun time learning how to walk, since he had been a bird for a good part of his life. His legs wobbled for a second before he could steady himself.

"Now, where should we go?" said Harry.

"Maybe we need to start by finding and catching that girl who sent us here," said Hedwig.

"Good idea," said Harry. "We'll catch her and force her to send us back to Hogwarts. We'll also force her to find Jacquel and send her back as well. No one messes with us and lives!"

Little did Harry know that the minute he found out where he was, his life was going to be thrown in for a loop...


	3. Welcome to the Show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Hedwig find themselves at Strawgoh High School

"Well, I don't suppose we know where we are?" Hedwig said as he and Harry took note of their surroundings. The place where they were was a small German village, as opposed to Hogsmeade Village and the small city of Diagon Alley. But there were no wizards walking around in that village, just normal everyday people.

In short, there was nothing magical about this place.

"I have a feeling we're not in England anymore," said Harry.

"I know," said Hedwig.

"But how did this happen?" Harry cried out in horror. "How did I get turned into a girl? How did you turn into a boy? This isn't right here."

"Of course it isn't right here," said Hedwig. "It's unnatural, none of this is. All you need to do now is to learn how to adapt to this new and unexpected change."

Harry glared at him. "But I don't want to adapt to this change!" she snapped in anger. "I don't want this! I just want to go back to being a boy!"

"But you can't go back to being a boy," said Hedwig. "Not since that girl who sent us here broke the mirror, making it impossible for us to get back to Hogwarts. So, as far as we know, we're stuck here."

He stared at Harry, knowing she was about to scream again. "Don't even think about it," he glared at her.

"What?" said Harry. "It's not like I don't have any other choice right now."

"Yes, we do," said Hedwig. "We go find help."

"And who's going to help us?" said Harry. "In case you haven't noticed, no one's going to believe us when we tell them we were brought here by a magical mirror. They might have us committed to the nearest mental hospital if we so much as breathe the word _magic_."

"OK," said Hedwig. "You have a good point there, Harry. But we really need to..."

Whatever he was about to say was cut short as a guard in the village noticed them. He approached them and said, "Why aren't you kids in school?"

"What school?" Harry said without missing a beat.

"I don't know who you are, but you know we have laws against truancy," said the guard. "You're coming with me."

He took the kids down the street until they reached a large building. The building in question was a school. Strawgoh High School was a private high school that had a unique design. In general, the school has a terrible reputation, which may not be deserved. Also, people claimed to hear strange noises and see strange lights coming from the building at night. A short while ago, a new student transferred into the school.

Harry and Hedwig couldn't help but wonder if they were going to be in trouble for not being in school, especially since they were never enrolled at the school in the first place. But that was nothing compared to what would happen next...

In the time that passed between Harry and Hedwig's arrival in the village, it was already September. Which meant Harry missed several weeks worth of summer vacation. Plus, she also missed her 16th birthday. His friends Ron and Hermione mourned his disappearance when the Daily Prophet declared him dead.

As for Hogwarts, the school was shut down when it was revealed that not only was the school breaking several safety codes, but Dumbledore tried to cover up the disappearance of Harry Potter. He was promptly arrested for murder in Harry's disappearance.

(Plus, the Dursleys were arrested for child abuse, but let's not start. Who actually cares about them, anyway?)

Anyway, with Hogwarts closed down for good, the students and teachers went to several different schools. Ron had to attend public school (because wizarding schools now have a policy of paying tuition and those who couldn't afford tuition couldn't attend the school) and his sister Ginny was sent to Azkaban for her part in the Chamber of Secrets fiasco. Hermione, however, went to college due to her intelligence.

Plus, the Diggory family blamed Harry for the death of their son Cedric, so they didn't give a favorable testimony about Harry at Dumbledore's trial. Dumbledore was sentenced to life in St. Hemlock for his crimes against the wizarding world.

But that's enough about that. I'm sure you want to get back to the story about Harry and his adventures in Strawgoh, am I right?

Harry said to the guard, "So, what exactly is the school?"

"You're not from around here, aren't you?" said the guard as he stared at Harry. "Where are you from?"

Harry froze; she had no idea of where she was, and she couldn't exactly remember where she came from. Luckily, Hedwig said, "We're from Hogwarts."

"Florida?" said the guard. "Figures. But no matter. The sooner we get you to Strawgoh, the better. Now, let's keep moving."

As they got closer to the school, Harry said to Hedwig, "It's bad enough we don't know where we came from, but where are we going to live? We don't have anywhere to go."

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll think of something," said Hedwig. "It's not like we're going to stay here forever. We'll find a way back to Hogwarts, I'm sure."

"And what if we don't get back to Hogwarts?" Harry cried out. "That girl who sent us here was pretty clear that we weren't coming back at all."

"Then let's find that girl and force her to send us back," said Hedwig.

"And how are we going to do that?" said Harry. "As far as I know, she could be anywhere. I bet she's just around the corner, waiting to strike."

She shuddered, knowing there was a chance she and Hedwig could meet the girl who sent them to this village, where they would never return home or see their friends again. At that, Harry grew angry, knowing that because of that cruel girl, her future was now compromised.

Before she could say anything else, the guard said, "Here's the school. I better not catch you two out here again or I'll have to inform your parents."

"Yes sir," said Hedwig as Harry stared at him in shock. Her parents had been dead for fifteen years and who knew who Hedwig's parents were. But she didn't dare voice her opinions out loud, for fear that people would dismiss her fears as paranoia.

"Shall we go in?" Hedwig said as he and Harry faced the door to Strawgoh High School. Harry nodded, knowing that the next step she took, she would be in a completely different world...


	4. Who's That Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We now see Harry (as a girl) setting foot in her new school. Everyone notices her, including the girl who sent her there.

The minute Harry set foot in Strawgoh High School, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her. They never saw anyone like her before; as such, they asked themselves questions, such as " _Who is that girl? Where did she come from? How did she get here?_ " and the clearly obvious, " _What the heck is she wearing?_ "

Harry heard what they were saying and she felt as cold as a cucumber. She had never been self-conscious before at Hogwarts, as everyone there treated her like a hero. Now, the people in this school treated her like she was a strange creature, something that never happened before.

Until now, that was.

"Hedwig," Harry whispered in fright as she gripped his arm, "they're all staring at me! What shall I do?"

"Just smile and wave, Harry," said Hedwig casually. "Just smile and wave."

Harry chuckled nervously and waved to the students, who reluctantly waved back. As she did, an odd thing happened.

The same rude girl from the first chapter of this story showed up and snapped at the students, "What do you think you're doing? Get back to class, all of you! This is my school! I own it!"

"Alright, who punched her in the face in kindergarten?" Hedwig snapped as the terrified students rushed towards their classrooms as fast as they could.

"I wouldn't know," said Harry. "But still, who would dare treat other people like this? Like they're her slaves?"

"You do know who that is, don't you?" said Hedwig.

"Oh crap, it's her!" Harry cried out as she turned to face the girl known as Cassidy Newfield. Cassidy had a victorious look on her face, something that wasn't lost on Harry and Hedwig. Both of them glared at her in anger, as she had been the one to send them to this place.

Cassidy saw Harry and said to her, "So, Potter, looks like I've finally done what Lord Voldemort couldn't do. I got rid of Harry Potter!"

"Yeah right," Hedwig snorted at her.

"Look, I don't know who you are and I don't know what your game is, but I know that you won't get away with it!" Harry snapped at her in anger. "Not as long as I'm here!"

Cassidy laughed as she approached Harry, tossing her blond hair around. She had changed out of the fake Hogwarts uniform and wore a black jacket, a pink shirt, a purple skirt, and her black boots.

"So, you think you can just stand up to me, don't you, Potter," said Cassidy. "What a pity, seeing as you're never going to amount to much around here. As I said before, I own this school, and you're going to have to learn your place if you're ever going to make it here."

"How can I, seeing as I've never even been inside a real high school before?" Harry cried out.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out soon, Potter," said Cassidy. "But I'm warning you now, no one will be your friend, once the truth about you is revealed."

Harry's face paled as a school monitor approached them, saying, "Newfield, what are you doing out of class?"

"Oh, nothing, just showing this new student around the school," said Cassidy with a fake smile on her face. The monitor glared at her, knowing that that girl wasn't even the least bit for real.

"That is what the school welcoming committee is for," said the monitor. "I'll handle the new student. Now get to class or else I'll report you for truancy. Don't think I won't hesitate to do that, because I will."

Cassidy glared at the monitor for a while, as did Harry and Hedwig. The person in question reminded Harry of Hagrid, even if she wasn't as tall or large as the groundskeeper was. Cassidy snarled at Harry, saying, "You just got lucky; next time we meet, I won't be so nice." Then she walked away.

"Don't mind her," said the monitor. "I've dealt with her for the last two years and I have done my fair share of the disciplining with regards to Miss Newfield. But she won't be bothering you anymore, not if I have anything to say about that."

"That's good," Harry said with a sigh of relief. Hedwig stared at her, knowing that before the story was over, the rivalry between Harry and Cassidy was going to get so much worse...


	5. Meet Peyton Hanner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Harry renames himself as Peyton Hanner

"And what will your new name be?" Hedwig said to Harry as they and the monitor walked towards the principal's office. Harry was distracted by the events that happened earlier that day (such as him discovering he was a girl and the confrontation with Cassidy) that he almost forgot about his new identity.

Until now, that was.

"Why are you asking me this?" she said.

"Because you're a girl now," said Hedwig. "As such, you can't call yourself "Harry Potter" anymore."

Harry frowned; she knew this was going to happen. She knew her life as Harry Potter was over the moment Cassidy had sent her here through the magic mirror.

Still, that didn't mean she couldn't fight against the inevitable.

"OK," she said with a strange look on her face. "So I have to come up with a girl's name. Big deal. But I'm no good with names, and I know I lack the kind of imagination Jacquel's notorious for having. What should I do?"

"Don't worry about it," said Hedwig, "It'll come to you in a second. All you have to worry about is how you're going to explain to the principal how you came to the school in the first place."

"How am I going to do that?" said Harry. "When last I checked, there's no such thing as magical mirrors that transport you from one place to another."

"Forget about the mirror, what are you going to do about Cassidy?" said Hedwig. "How are we going to be able to squeeze past her?"

"I'm sure we'll figure it out some way or another," said Harry.

They reached the principal's office; the principal stared at the two new students standing before her. She said, "I normally don't let anyone enter the school after the school year begins, but I'll be willing to make an exception in your case, providing that you tell me your names and where you came from."

Harry froze; she knew there was no way she was going to tell anyone she was a wizard from Hogwarts, not when the principal had no idea about what Hogwarts was or what it look like.

"Now can I panic?" she said to Hedwig.

"Nope, that's not allowed," said Hedwig. "You have to pick out a name for yourself and tell her where you came from."

"Really?" Harry snapped.

"You got at least three seconds, so you better think quickly," said Hedwig.

Harry paled, knowing what was up. She knew she couldn't call herself "Harriet Potter", as it was too close to "Harry Potter". She also couldn't call herself "Jamie" or "Lily" for the same reason.

But there was an idea that struck her; she didn't know it yet, but she had a feeling that it just might work.

Just then, she blurted out, "I'm...Peyton Hanner, an exchange student from...Hogwarts, England, and this is my cousin Hedley."

"Indeed," said the principal. "My name is Chloe Rogers, I run things around here despite what you may have heard from Cassidy."

"So you do know about Cassidy Newton," said Hedley.

"Indeed I do," said Chloe. "While her parents aren't wealthy nor are they famous, Cassidy spent two years climbing to the top, or at least attempting to climb to the top. I wouldn't want to get on her bad side if I were you."

"I knew it!" Peyton hissed to Hedley. "She's definitely up to no good!" Then to Chloe, she said, "May I know what classes I am going to?"

"Of course," said Chloe. "I'll draw up the paperwork when you get to the counselor's office."

"Peyton Hanner?" Hedley cried out. "Are you kidding me?"

"Well, it just sort of...came to me," said Peyton. "What of it?"

"You're cutting it a little too close," said Hedley. Peyton glared at him. "Exchange student from Hogwarts? Seriously? Did you think she was actually going to buy that nonsense you conjured up?"

"Well, excuse me for almost cracking under the pressure," said Peyton, "but what was I supposed to do? Tell everybody that I'm actually a boy wizard from the wizarding world? That’s not going to happen, not any time soon."

"I was just saying," said Hedley, but then a student snooping around the principal's office saw the two new students in question. He went to inform everyone of their arrival. Little did Peyton and Hadley know that their arrival at Strawgoh High School was not so quiet after all.


	6. Too Many Cliques, Not Enough Unity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: "Mean Girls" references are in the story. Please read with caution.

"Well, we can't say we didn't succeed in what we came here to do," Hedley said as he and Peyton walked down the halls.

"Why not?" said Peyton.

"As far as we know, everyone here thinks we're exchange students from England," said Hedley.

"Since when was that a bad thing?" said Peyton. "As far as I can tell, we did have some exchange students at Hogwarts last year."

"Yeah, I know," said Hedley. "It's one thing to be an exchange student, and it is another thing to have exchange students. I never thought we'd be one."

"And now we are," said Peyton, "but the question is how everyone's going to see us. It's already bad enough that Cassidy owns the school, but I'm seeing too many stereotypical high school cliques to know that this place is real."

"Now that I completely understand," said Hedley as two students approached them. One of them said, "Hi, you must be the new students. My name is Anna Harrington, and I'm the eyes and ears of the school. Now if you come with me, I'll take you to the cafeteria, as it is lunch time."

"Is it just me or is this place way too normal?" said Peyton.

"You're right, Peyton," said Hedley. "This place is just too normal. I mean, just look at all these groups of people sitting in the cafeteria!"

They both stared at the cafeteria, which was filled to the brim with students. Most of them were sitting with their own kind, never intermixing. "It's just like that bad episode of that one TV show," said Hedley. "Is no one allowed to interact with each other or anything like that, or is this just Cassidy's doing?

"You could say that," said Anna, "but I'm going to warn you right now: you need to be careful of where you sit in this cafeteria."

"Why are you telling us this?" said Peyton.

"Because it's crucial that you know how we have everyone here," said Anna. "Here, we got your freshmen, the army brats, the geniuses, the gamers, the stereotypical Asian nerds, the sports players, the fake black rappers, the girls who like to eat, the gay dudes, the wannabes, the band geeks, the best friends that you're going to make in this universe, and the worst. Beware of the Sirens."

"And who are the Sirens, might I ask?" said Hedley.

"The Sirens are three of the worst girls in the school, next to Cassidy, that is," said Nicholas Floyd. "Let me give you the rundown on them: the first girl you'll meet is Kirsten Prince, one of the dumbest girls in the school."

"She asked me how to spell the word ugly," said Anna, "and she doesn't even know what ugly is."

"Next up is Sophia Levine," said Nicholas. "She's rich, as her dad invented the bottled soda water."

"Sophia is always up in everyone else's business," said Anna.

"That's why her head is so messed up," said Nicholas. "It's full of secrets!"

"But the worst of them is Kayla Spencer," said Anna. "If you ask me, she's the devil in human form. Don't let her fool you. She may look like your typical selfish back-stabbing bitch, but in reality, she's ten times worse."

"She's like the queen bee of the school," said Nicholas, "if she ever gets the chance to take the crown away from Cassidy, that is."

"Yeah, and if she can't do that, she's the head bitch. She's like the biggest star of the school. The other two are just her little helpers," said Anna.

"Well, that's nice and all," said Peyton, "but that doesn't help me when I want to find out who she is."

"Are you kidding?" said Selena Williams. "How do I begin to explain Kayla Spencer?"

"That girl is flawless," said Phoebe Hunt.

"I hear that she owns five Prada purses and two pairs of Dolce & Gabana sunglasses," said Grace Young.

"I hear that it takes three hours for her to do her hair," said Poppy Fraser.

"I hear that she's a pop singer in Turkmenistan," said Madison Berry.

"She once shook hands with Chris Hemsworth at a concert," said Maria Murphy.

"And he told her that she was great," said Josephine Turner.

"This one time in band camp last year, she punched me in the face," said Jamie McCarthy. "It was awesome!"

"Okay, can we just knock it off?" said Peyton. "None of your descriptions about her are helping us. I can't even see that someone like her is even real to begin with!"

Just then, the Sirens in question entered the room. Everyone turned to stare at them as Nicholas said, "Uh-oh, here they come! We better be careful!"

"Why do we need to be careful?" said Hedley as the girls turn to stare at the group.

"Well well well," said Kayla as she and the other girls approached the group, "what do we have here? New students? Well, I'm sorry they chose to come here so early in the year."

"I take it you're Kayla Spencer," said Peyton.

"How did you find out about me?" said Kayla.

"Well," said Peyton, "everybody's telling me about you, which makes me wonder, are you like some kind of Queen Bee around here or something like that because if you..."

"Like who the heck are you?" said Sophia.

"I'm Peyton Hanner," said Peyton, "and I'm an exchange student from Hogwarts..."

"Hogwarts, Florida, right?" Kayla rudely blurted out. "Because that's like the only place I know."

"You could say that," said Peyton.

"Well, let me ask you something," said Kirsten as she stared at Peyton. "If you're from Florida, why is your skin white?"

"Oh my God, Kirsten," said Sophia, "you can't just go around asking people why their skin is white!"

"Well, excuse me for being curious!" Kirsten shouted back.

"So let me get this straight," said Kayla. "Why don't I know you?"

"Because I went to a boarding school," said Peyton. "You know, a school where they send orphans away with because they don't have parents and they live there while attending school..."

"I know what a boarding school is," said Kayla. "So this is your first time being in a public high school? Oh my God. Shut up. Shut up!"

"I didn't say anything," said Peyton.

On the other side of the cafeteria, Cassidy and her two minions Dulce Howard and Azalea George watched the whole thing take place. "Look at what we have here," said Cassidy. "The new girl's attempting to cozy up to the Sirens. Doesn't she know how terrible they are?"

"I know," said Dulce, "and it's too bad though, because I heard that Kayla Spenser's trying to run for prom queen once again. Didn't she learn from last year's mistake?"

"She never learns anything," said Azalea.

"This time, we're going to crush her the way she should have been crushed all those years ago," said Cassidy. "And we can't afford to have any slip ups. You two know what to do."

Little did the girls realize that Hedley was listening to their conversation the whole time. By the time he realized what was happening, it would be too late for him and Peyton...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Watch your backs, because the Sirens are here!!


	7. The Sirens

"You need to be careful of who you associate with around here, because nobody here will forgive you if you're caught with the wrong people," said Anna.

Several hours earlier, Peyton met the Sirens, a trio of girls who were so popular, not even Cassidy could intimidate them. Having said that, she did, in the form of dirty tricks she played on them to force them to know their place.

"So you're telling me that everybody thinks that the Sirens are just flat-out bad news?" said Peyton.

"Better them than Cassidy," said Nicholas. "That girl's messed up in the head. I mean, I don't know who she is or where she came from, but she came here and started messing with the social hierarchy."

"It's so sad," said Anna. "And the worst thing is, though, she'll be doing this to us until the day we graduate."

"So what are we going to do about it?" said Peyton. "It's not like we can't rise up and defeat her."

She didn't see the smiles that came from Kayla's face. Kayla, Kirsten, and Sophia had trailed the new trio and overheard their plot to take out Cassidy Newman. "I heard you're plotting to take her down," said Kayla. "You've hardly been in this school for two seconds and already you're plotting against her. That is awesome, even from me."

"What do you know about Cassidy?" said Peyton.

"Oh, I can write you a laundry list of all the things she is," said Kirsten. "She's rude, she's cruel, and she doesn't care about anything that people say. I mean, that girl's like a total crab."

"Don't forget about last year, when she dumped a bucket full of chicken noodle soup all over Kayla's head," said Sophia. "It was embarrassing."

"You're telling me that Cassidy dumped soup on Kayla?" said Peyton. "What is wrong with her? Is she that messed up in the head? Doesn't she know that with all the pain, hunger, and diseases in the world, she doesn't have a better use for her time than dumping chicken soup on the heads of girls who are better than her? Oh my God, I feel like I'm in a nuthouse!"

The other girls laughed as hard as they dared, but Anna and Nicholas glared at them. Before anyone else could respond, a rude boy pushed Anna, saying, "Nice shirt, Anna. Where did you steal it from?"

"Your gay uncle!" Anna shot back at him.

"Oh, burn!" said Nicholas.

"Well, while we love to stay and chat with you, we have more important things to do," said Kayla. "Don't forget on Wednesdays, we wear green."

"What are you talking about?" said Peyton.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough," said Kayla. "Let's go girls."

As the Sirens walked away, Anna said, "you better be careful, Peyton. Those girls are on to you. It will only be a matter of time before you act just like them."

"Yeah right," said Payton. "Like that'll ever happen."

Just then, she saw a familiar girl standing in a corner next to another girl, or more like blocking her from Cassidy. _Is that Jacquelyn_ she thought as she saw the girl slap Cassidy across her face and push aside her minions. Then she guided the other girl away from the scene. _Is that her?_

Peyton ran down the hall in search of Hedley; she needed to tell him about Jacquelyn right away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harry (I mean Peyton) really needs to watch her back, because she does not know what she has gotten herself into. More will come soon!


	8. Finding Jacquelyn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Peyton finds Jacquelyn, but she's not the same girl that Harry remembers.

"Are you sure you saw Jacquelyn?" Hedley said when Peyton saw him.

"Well, who else would it be?" said Peyton. "You know how she is; she always stands up to people who are handicapped and bullies able-bodied people. Did you see what she did to Cassidy? She pushed her down!"

"Sounds like Jacquelyn alright," said Hedley, "but I'm still not convinced that it's her. After all, do you remember what happened to her right before Cassidy kidnapped us?"

"I do," said Peyton. "She kidnapped Jacquelyn as well because of some personal vendetta. I mean, who knows what happened between Jacquelyn getting kidnapped and us getting kidnapped."

"Please tell me that this is a joke," said Hedley. "Jacquelyn cannot be here, or is she?"

"Yes, she is," said Peyton.

"Then let's go talk to her," said Hedley. "I'm sure that no matter what, she'll be happy to see us."

"It's worth a shot," said Peyton.

They approached the girl in question, not bothering to notice that she was NOT the same Jacquelyn that they knew. For one thing, Jacquel Romanov had turquoise eyes, blonde hair and loved to wear pink clothes. This Jacquelyn wore black clothes, dyed blue and purple hair, and had dark blue eyes and tan skin.

"Jacquel?" Peyton said, with a hesitant look on her face. Hedley too looked hesitant, but he knew that the last time he had seen Jacquelyn, he had been an owl named Hedwig.

"And who are you?" said Jacquelyn with a look of suspicion on her face.

"You know who I am," said Peyton. "I'm Harry Potter and that's Hedwig. We used to be friends at Hogwarts. Don't you remember anything?"

"You're crazy," Jacquelyn glared at Peyton. "I don't associate with crazy people. Now get out of here so I can get Jazmyne to her next class before the normals come."

"What's wrong with normal people?" said Hedley.

"Because they're all nothing but stupid, greedy dumbasses who don't give a crap about their handicapped brothers and sisters," said Jacquelyn. "Besides, you've seen what Cassidy did to Jazmyne. The poor girl has Down syndrome and her mother firmly insists that she be placed in the normal classes with the normal kids. Now, like I said before, get the Frick out of my way or I will MAKE you!"

"Wow, she sure has changed," said Hedley as he and Peyton watched Jacquelyn take the girl and leave. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Cassidy must have brainwashed her to forget us. How else could she have said the stuff that she said to us?"

"You're right," said Peyton. "She must have been brainwashed, or maybe she's working for Cassidy herself! We need to get her back to normal now!"

"And how are we going to do that?" said Hedley. "Cassidy has her sticky hands all over the school and Jacquelyn hates us."

"Not unless we get the Sirens involved," said Peyton. Hedley glared at her. "What? Maybe by having them pull a prank on Jacquelyn and blaming it on Cassidy can we set her straight. Besides, what else do we have to lose?"

Hedley nodded in agreement, knowing they were permanently stuck in this strange new world. They didn't have anything to lose.

"Alright, let's do it," he said nervously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like our Jacquelyn needs a push in the right direction, courtesy of Peyton and Hedley. More will come...


	9. The Casters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Peyton and Hedley meet the Casters, a group of magicians who literally are so done with the high school drama.

"OK, so remind me of why we're doing this again?" said Hedley as he and Peyton approached the Sirens.

"You know why," said Peyton with a strange look on her face. "Kayla, Kirsten, and Sophia are like the queen bees of the school, and they seem to know everyone. I bet they know more about Jacquelyn than we do."

"I hope so," said Hedley. "I hate to be the one to go up against Jacquelyn when she finds out about what we're planning."

They walked to the corner of the school, where they saw their target standing with several other people, who were dressed like her. Jacquelyn said to them, "Cassidy is out of control, guys. We need to take action immediately."

"How are we going to do that?" said Stacey Palmer. "We all know how she is. She won't stop until the entire school, including us, is under her thumb."

"I heard she's running for homecoming queen unopposed," said Jadenne Black.

"I saw her back-talking Mrs. Galmez during math class and daring her to do something about it," said Julian Mercer.

"We need to bring her down," said Jacquelyn. "She needs to be brought down hard."

"How's about we have Kayla Spenser and her little workers spread a rumor about her," said Jadenne.

"Bad idea," said Stacey. "Cassidy will know if anyone spreads rumors about her, especially if it's the Sirens."

"Someone has to take her down," said Julian. "But who?"

"I have this crazy idea," said Jacquelyn. Her cousins stared at her. "There's this new student called Peyton Hanner, and she just enrolled here."

"Yeah, so, and who cares?" said Julian.

"Don't you get it?" Stacey smiled. "A new student! This is perfect!"

"What are you talking about?" said Jadenne.

"We can use her to dethrone Cassidy Newman," said Stacey.

"Exactly," said Jacquelyn.

Within a few seconds, Peyton and Hedley realized what Jacquelyn was. She was a Caster, and Casters were notorious for cutting into other people's lives. Peyton knew that Jacquelyn and her cousins were going to use her to take down Cassidy Newton.

"I say that we abandoned her too soon," said Hedley.

Peyton nodded in agreement, saying, "Maybe we should stick to our original plan of getting the Sirens to spread a rumor about Cassidy..."

Yet before she could finish her plan, Julian, Stacey, and Jadenne had her surrounded. Hedley gasped as he watched the three Casters capture Peyton and drag her before Jacquelyn. Jacquelyn stared at the girl for a second, trying to see her for herself. There was no evidence that the girl in question was indeed Harry Potter. Not if she was a girl, anyway.

"I knew this was too good to be true," said Jacquelyn in a voice that said, "I'm so done with this crap."

"What are you talking about?" said Peyton.

"I know who you are, Peyton Hanner," said Jacquelyn. "You're a crazy girl sent here because you ran away from your relatives after claiming that they abused you."

"What," said Peyton as she glared at the spellcaster. "How do you know this stuff?"

"Believe me, I know everything about you, Peyton," said Jacquelyn. "I also know about your friend here. I know how you came here, seeing as I overheard Cassidy boasting to her two minions that she got rid of some kid called Harry Potter. I did some snooping around, and my cousins were happy to help me. So we came up with this theory: Cassidy discovered a portal to an alternative world inside a magical mirror, and she planned to take over that alternative world. But we got to her first. With a powerful zap, I sent her there and decided to break the mirror so she couldn't come back here."

"But we underestimated Cassidy's next move, which was to kill a boy named Harry Potter and incite terror in the other world," said Jadenne. "We finally broke the mirror and made it irreparable, but Cassidy returned here a few seconds earlier."

"Now you're stuck here," said Stacey. "If you're going to survive here, you're going to have to learn how to think like a Caster."

"Such as, you can NOT be friends with Cassidy or her minions," said Julian. "They want you for a nefarious reason."

"Plus, you need to find a way to take the crown away from her and expose her for who and what she truly is," said Jacquelyn. "You think you can do that?"

Peyton nodded, not knowing that the minute she met the Casters, she was going to forget about being Harry Potter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Peyton is more or less inducted into the Casters. How will this play out? 
> 
> Stay tuned!


	10. Seeking Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Peyton tries to find new friends, but it's not easy to do that when you're in a new school.

Within several days, Peyton knew how to survive life at Strawgoh High School. She learned the difference between a locker and a book bag. For the first time in her life, she had to rely on herself to get from one classroom to another. (I'm sure she had some problems getting to her classes for a few days; thanks to Nicholas and Anna, she was able to navigate the halls of the school.)

Even though she had Hedley, Peyton was still alone. None of the other students would talk to her for fear of Cassidy's wrath; even the Sirens Kayla, Kirsten, and Sophia had yet to acknowledge her existence.

Yet, the only two people who did speak to her were Anna and Nicholas; their stories about life at Strawgoh High didn't make things better for Peyton. Most of their stories were the products of nightmares, including bullies, strict teachers, and the endless hours of homework that had to be completed. Sometimes, it seemed that no one was allowed to have any fun at Strawgoh.

"OK, that's enough. Stop it!" Peyton snapped as she stopped Anna from telling a story about a girl she hated for almost no reason. "I've had more than enough of your bad stories to last me the rest of my entire life!"

"Yeah, why can't you tell us a good story for once?" said Hedley. "A story that doesn't contain bullies or cruel teachers or even about Cassidy?"

"I'm tired of hearing about Cassidy," said Peyton. "That girl is nothing but bad news. How can she be so " _great_ " and yet ruin the lives of students everywhere?"

"That's all we ever know about her," said Nicholas. "She's going to keep oppressing us until the day we finally graduate."

"That is, if we don't drop out first," said Anna.

"I've had enough of those two," said Hedley as he pulled Peyton aside so they could speak in private. "I can't take this anymore! If I hear one more story about Cassidy, I'm going to snap!"

"Calm down, Hedley," said Peyton. "I'm sure we'll find someone soon."

"We better," said Peyton.

She was getting tired of having people following her, asking her stupid questions, and even making bad jokes about her choice in clothing. Someone was going to be hanging out with her, come hell or high water.

Yet before we can begin that part of the story, here's what happened the day before...

* * *

Peyton and Hedley went to the library to study the school's history before Cassidy decided to set foot into the place. It appeared that the kids were happy with their school, at least until Cassidy apparently sent Jacquelyn there. Nonetheless, Cassidy took control of the school two years before kidnapping Harry and Jacquelyn.

"Well, I must say this is interesting," said Hedley as he stared at a picture of six girls standing together in front of the school sign. One of those girls HAD to look like Jacquelyn, with her dark hair and mismatched blue and gray eyes.

The picture underneath the caption read: " _Jacquelyn Ritterwolff, Josselyn Bradley, Raina Gilpin, Marley Collins, Abigail Hilliard, and Summer Edmondson. Freshman Day at Strawgoh High School, 2013_."

"We've hit the jackpot," said Hedley. "It turns out that Jacquelyn had friends besides her spellcasting cousins. All we need to do is bring her and her friends back together."

"I don't know that's a good idea," said Peyton. "Who knows who these other girls are. Or where they are for that matter. I mean, are they nice?"

"Or maybe they're just as mean as Cassidy is, and we know Cassidy was behind the whole thing," said Hedley.

"I can't trust her, not even for a second," said Peyton. "I say that we track her friends down."

"It's worth a shot," said Hedley. "After all, I believe we were sent here for a reason, even though we both don't know what it is yet."

* * *

Unknown to Peyton and Hedley, Cassidy, Azalea, and Dulce was sitting outside the library. They were planning to humiliate Peyton for standing up to them. Cassidy was angry because Peyton defied her and made sure that she would not get her way.

Azalea said, "Check it out guys, Payton is sitting at the computer."

"Why should we care?" said Dulce.

"Because I just found out a way to humiliate her," said Cassidy.

"And how are we going to do that?" said Azalea.

"You'll see," said Cassidy as she held up her video camera. As she recorded Peyton and Hedley looking up something on the Internet, she thought to herself _you are so going down, Peyton Hanner._


	11. Watch Your Back!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a group of girls who were once best friends plan to hit back at Cassidy.

The next day, Cassidy, Azalea, and Dulce went to the library and uploaded a video they made about Peyton. Except the video painted the girl in question in an unfavorable light.

"This is perfect," said Cassidy as the video uploaded on YouTube. "When everyone sees this video, Peyton's days here will be numbered." 

Yet, she had no idea that someone was watching her the whole time...

* * *

When she came to school, Peyton knew that it was going to be a bad day when the girls noticed her. In fact, EVERYONE in the school stared at her and began laughing. Peyton was confused; why was everyone laughing at her? What was it about her that was so funny?

Soon, Jacquelyn saw her and pulled her into a classroom, saying, "You better lie low; they already know about you!"

"Who's they?" said Peyton.

"Ask no questions," Jacquelyn said as she shut the door. "Cassidy and her minions have already done enough damage around here, and you are their unfortunate victim." Hedley stared at another girl in the room. She sat at the teacher's desk staring into her computer. "Raina," said Jacquelyn as she stared at the other girl, "show her the video."

At once, a YouTube video was being played. The video in questioned showed Peyton and Hedley hunched at a computer banging on the keyboard. Underneath the video was the title " _IS THIS GIRL CRAZY_ ". Comments were under the video, with most of them saying some unkind things about Peyton.

"Crazy?" said Peyton. "They think I'M crazy? I'll show them!"

"Me too!" said Hedley as he jumped out of his seat. "I'll find those girls and give them the old one-two punch! They'll never see it coming!"

"You can't do that," said a girl named Marley Collins as she, Abigail Hilliard, and Summer Edmondson came into the room and saw the other girls and Hedley. "Cassidy is behind this, no doubt. She'll catch you and tear you apart before you can even land one blow!"

"And what are you doing here?" said Raina Gilpin as she stared at the other girls. "I thought I said I wasn't talking to you anymore!"

"YOU?" said Summer. "You can't order me around! And for your information, Jacquelyn invited me, so there!"

"Really?" said Raina. "And how do we know you're telling the truth?"

"Because I invited her here," said Jacquelyn. "Besides, why are you here?"

Summer said, "Well, someone asked me to come here. I didn't know who he was, but he told me and the others that I had to meet up with you soon."

"Indeed," said Jacquelyn with a frown on her face. 

"And as for you," said Abigail to Marley, "you're as useless as the white crayon in the Crayola box!"

"You better take that back!" Marley said in turn.

As the girls began arguing, Peyton said to Hedley, "You need to do something and quickly; they're going to tear up the room if we don't stop them!" At that, Hedley coughed and pulled out the yearbook, which was at the page where the girls had their picture taken. Jacquelyn glared at him, saying, "Where did you find this picture?"

"In the library," said Hedley. "This is where you all became friends."

Jacquelyn, Raina, Marley, Abigail, and Summer all stared at the yearbook page for a long time. They all realized this was coming; especially if it had something to do with Cassidy Newton.

"I don't believe it," said Jacquelyn at last when she looked up from the book. "I should have known that Cassidy would tear us apart. We were friends and she destroyed our friendship for no reason."

"Why would she do something like that?" said Peyton. "You used to be friends. Why did Cassidy destroy your friendship?"

"Cause she's a life ruiner," said Summer as the others stared at Peyton. "She ruins people's lives just for kicks."

"And why does she do that?" said Hedley.

"For kicks," said Abigail. "For the past year and a half, we had to put up with her and her two helpers as they bullied us. I mean, we can take that kind of crap from the Sirens, but we're not going to sit there and let Cassidy ruin another life!"

"I say that if Cassidy destroyed our friendship, Peyton can fix it," said Raina. "The Main Six are getting back together, and everyone in this school had better watch their backs!"

As the girls cheered, Peyton and Hedley stared at each other. The time for them to strike back at Cassidy was now.


	12. The Homecoming Crisis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Peyton is drawn into a plot against Cassidy.

"You're telling me that you never had a homecoming at your old school?" Sophia said in shock when Peyton told her that she had never been to an actual homecoming before. It was lunchtime and Peyton and the other girls were already making plans to take down Cassidy Newton.

"Nope," said Peyton.

"Why not?" said Kirsten.

"My old school decided that dances were meaningless," said Peyton.

"What a shame," said Kirsten. When Peyton glared at her, she said, "At least you didn't miss anything here. Every year, Cassidy always wins Homecoming Queen."

"I ran against her last year," said Kayla. "She sabotaged my victory and stole my crown. I want to make her pay for that."

"And how will you do that?" said Peyton. "MasterCard or Visa?"

"I love her," said Kayla. "She's like a Martian!"

"Really?" said Chester Barlow. "That crazy chick? She needs to be in the special ed room instead of hanging out with you guys."

Kayla turned on him, saying, "I know you think that she's socially retarded and weird, but she's my friend...so, just promise me you won't make fun of her?"

"That is a load of baloney," said Chester. "Are you really that dumb to think that she is your friend?"

"Yeah," said Kirsten, "so you better back off now or else we're going to make you."

"And don't even think that your friend Cassidy is going to help you this time," said Sophia, "because we all know her dirty tricks."

While the Sirens argued with Chester, Anna and Nicholas pulled Peyton aside, saying, "You better be careful, Peyton. Those girls are dangerous."

"But what if I'm friends with those girls?" said Peyton.

"Kayla Spencer isn't the least bit for real," said Anna. "She totally humiliated me last year. I'm not letting it go. So help me, Peyton Hanner, I'm going to get through to her; and if I have to use you to hit her back, so be it!"

Nicholas grabbed her arm, saying, "What if we had Peyton running for homecoming queen against Cassidy?"

"Are you serious?" said Anna. "Cassidy planted that video about Peyton being a complete retard on the Internet. Peyton won't last a second against her."

"But what if I do run against her, and manage to beat her?" said Peyton. "Then everyone will be able to forget about the embarrassing video of me at the computer."

"Well, it's worth a shot," said Nicholas. "Besides, what do we have to lose?"

They had no idea that Dulce and Azalea had overheard them and were making their report to Cassidy. "I see and hear that Peyton is planning to run against me for homecoming queen," said Cassidy. "I thought I made it explicitly clear to the students at the school that I'm to run for homecoming queen unopposed. She's cramping my style."

"I know," said Azalea. "You do remember when we taught that Kayla Spencer a lesson about trying to beat you last year? I'm surprised she's even showing her face around here, let alone lead the Sirens."

"So we're going to have to try a different tactic to knock her down," said Dulce, "seeing that that video trick didn't exactly work."

"Oh, I'll knock her down all right," said Cassidy. "You just wait and see..."


	13. The Campaign

"Are you sure that you want to go through with this?" said Jacquelyn when Peyton told her and the other girls of Nicholas and Anna's plan to have her run for Homecoming queen against Cassidy. "You do know that Cassidy likes to run every election campaign unopposed."

"She's crazy," said Summer.

"Not just crazy," said Marley. "She's gone power-mad."

"Like, check out this ad for her homecoming queen election," said Abigail as she showed them a video on her tablet."

The ad showed Peyton at the computer. Yet instead of Peyton, there was a boy that looked like a poor man's version of Harry Potter who was superimposed in Peyton's place. Strange magical symbols were around the boy. Underneath the picture were the words  _DO YOU SERIOUSLY WANT THIS "GIRL" TO BE YOUR HOMECOMING QUEEN??? VOTE FOR CASSIDY NEWFIELD!!_

"That is insane!" said Marley. "Just who does she think she is?"

"Outrageous," said Jacquelyn. "Even worse, we don't have anything to hit her back with."

"But what if we don't have to hit back at her at all?" said Peyton. The girls stared at her. "What if we played up my good qualities? That would be a whole lot better than what Cassidy is doing with her " _smear_ " campaign against me."

"Maybe it's time to get your cousins involved in this, Jacquelyn," said Summer. "We know they have the dirt on everyone in this school."

"Everyone but Peyton," said Summer.

"And since no one knows about Peyton, save for those bad videos that Cassidy decided to make about her, I say that it's time for her to get an image makeover," said Abigail. "With a new hairstyle and outfit, no one is going to think twice about not voting for her."

"Is this a good idea?" said Peyton. "Are we going to change me?"

"If it helps you win," said Jacquelyn. "And not just with the election, but the hearts and minds of the students here. I don't know if you know this or not, but everyone around here is sick and tired of having to deal with Cassidy's one-sided elections. We need some variety around here, and not just Kayla Spenser flavor either. Peyton Hanner, we need you."

Peyton couldn't believe her ears; the girls claimed that they needed her in order to dethrone Cassidy Newton. All the same, the main question was, though, was she up to the challenge?


	14. The Slip-Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Mean Team strikes and the Casters hit them back

"Now this is a bad idea," said Dulce as she and Azalea entered the gym where the dance was to take place. "The Artists are going to kill us if we mess up the place."

"But we need to mess up the place because Cassidy said so," said Azalea. "We need to mess up the place and get Peyton in trouble."

"Enough trouble to put an end to her campaign," said Dulce. "Now, let's get to work."

By the time the girls were finished, the gym looked as if a tornado had ripped through it. Tables were flipped over, broken balloons and streamers were all over the floor, and the arch where the homecoming queen was to pose under was destroyed. The girls had done their job well.

"Excellent," said Cassidy as she saw the state of the gym. "With the place a mess and no one around to see it, Peyton Hanner will be blamed for this. Her little homecoming queen campaign will be over before it even begins."

As the girls rushed to the principal's office, they didn't know that Stacey and Jadenne had taken pictures of them causing all the damage to the gym. They rushed to the office as fast as they could; there wasn't a moment to lose.

* * *

"PEYTON HANNER, PLEASE REPORT TO PRINCIPAL ROGERS'S OFFICE IMMEDIATELY."

"Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to be in the doghouse?" Peyton said to Hedley as they made their way towards the principal's office.

"Uh, lucky break?" said Hedley.

"That's not funny," said Peyton.

As soon as they got to the office, they gasped as they saw the principal talking to Cassidy, Dulce, and Azalea. Chloe said, "Cassidy has told me that you've destroyed the gym where the dance was to take place. Is this true?"

"Who? Me?" said Peyton. "I would NEVER do such a thing!"

"She's lying," said Dulce as she pulled out the pictures of Peyton appearing to destroy the gym. ( _Little did she know that the Casters had switched the photos of Peyton to photos of Dulce and Azalea, so she was actually incriminating herself and Azalea._ ) "Everything that she says is not true."

"I see," said Chloe. "And where's your proof?"

Dulce set out the pictures and everyone gasped in horror as Dulce and Azalea were seen destroying the gym in the pictures. "I don't believe this," said Chloe in anger. "I don't understand how you could lie to me in this way and expect me to believe you. Dulce, Azalea, you two are banned from attending the homecoming dance."

The two girls lowered their heads in shame as Chloe said, "Peyton, since you were found to not be the culprit of this crime, you're free to go. As for you, Cassidy, I suggest that you better be on your best behavior, since this has your hands all over it."

Cassidy stormed away from the office in anger; Peyton had messed with her plans for the last time! Besides, she even got Dulce and Azalea banned from attending the dance at that! How was she going to celebrate her victory without her two minions?

Just then, Stacey and Jadenne saw her and said, "You're not getting away with it this time, Cassidy. This time, you WILL be defeated, and there won't be anything that you'll be able to do about it!"

Cassidy snarled at them, but they smiled at her right back. She knew that like it or not, the battle between her and the Casters was on now...


	15. This joke is on you!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Peyton is the subject of a cruel joke, yet a terrible joke is played on Cassidy.

When Peyton came to the cafeteria, everyone there turned around, pointed at her, and began laughing once again. "Why are they laughing at me?" she said to Hedley. "Haven't we seen enough humiliating videos about me?"

"I wouldn't say that," said Julian as he pulled out his tablet and played a video. The video was as follows:

Peyton was seen dressed as a witch and doing magic. Underneath the picture was a caption that read: " _Peyton Hanner is a lying cheating witch who uses magic to destroy other students and make herself look innocent in front of the teachers. Don't vote for her. Instead, vote for Cassidy Newton, your true homecoming queen_."

"That girl is out of control," said Jacquelyn as she, Stacey, and Jadenne came to their table and saw the video. "She doesn't get in trouble for destroying the school gym and makes another YouTube video that's full of lies. She has no clout."

"Yeah, I know," said Julian.

Stacey was about to respond when the group turned around and saw Sophia, Kirsten, and Kayla making catcalls at Julian from across the room. "Julian's looking good today!" yelled Kirsten.

"But isn't he Jacquelyn's cousin?" said Kayla.

"Who cares?" said Kirsten. "He's such a great kisser!"

"Sirens," Jadenne frowned as she rolled her eyes at the group. "Why do we have them around?"

"Who knows?" said Stacey. "Anyway, it's time for part two of the plan."

"Which is," Jacquelyn began.

"You'll see," said Stacey with a smile on her face.

* * *

When Cassidy went to check her YouTube account, she was astonished to learn that her account ( _which consisted of videos bullying the other students_ ) had been hacked and all her videos erased. This angered her more than anything in the world; she was sure that Peyton had done the deed.

As she ranted and raved about her hacked account, Jacquelyn said, "That ought to teach her not to go dragging us into her schemes."

"But can't we just get her account banned?" said Julian.

"One at a time, Jules," said Stacey. "First, we have to expose the other two girls as accomplices to Cassidy's cruel deeds and not use our Facebook accounts to do so."

"I know," said Julian. "But is this the best way to go about this?"

"Not unless you come up with another plan," said Jadenne.

"She's coming!" said Stacey. "Everyone scatter!"

As the Casters rushed out of the library and went in separate directions to find Peyton, Cassidy had her answer. From her point of view, Peyton had influenced the Casters to help her dethrone her rival. There was nothing else for it.

"It's time to up my game," she said as she thought about the next part of her plan. This time, no one was going to stop her from clawing her way up to the top, where she belonged. If Peyton Hanner dared to step in her way one more time, she was going to regret even setting foot in Strawgoh High School.


	16. Let's Help Peyton Win The Crown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Main Six sing a fun song in order to get the school to help Peyton win homecoming queen.

"There's only one thing for it," said Raina. "We need to help Peyton."

The girls were sitting in the library, trying to come up with ways that they could help Peyton's campaign. So far, they had done almost nothing to help Peyton. Yet Cassidy's smear campaign did more damage to Peyton's cause than Peyton could say anything for herself.

"But what can we do?" said Abigail. "It's not like everyone knows who Peyton is, except for those videos that Cassidy made about her in order to destroy her."

"Maybe we should introduce Peyton to the school," said Summer.

"That's a great idea," said Jacquelyn. "If we can make everyone see that Peyton is more than just someone who Cassidy likes to destroy in her videos, then we take that power away from her and show the school who the real Peyton Hanner is."

"And how are we going to do that?" said Peyton. "I'm not exactly the social butterfly that the Sirens are."

"Not yet," said Marley. Then it hit her. "Remember when during our freshmen year everyone was wearing dragonfly wings?"

"Yes," said Summer. "Because let's face it, no one around here is showing any school spirit, not since Cassidy arrived. On the other hand, we can show everyone that no matter how divided we appear to be, we're all the same."

"Yeah," said Abigail, "because we're the Strawgoh High Dragonflies!"

* * *

The next day, in the cafeteria, five girls marched into the place, each of them wearing a loose white top with medium-length sleeves and a medium-length simple turquoise skirt. They also wore a pair of ankle-high boots and sheer white dragonfly wings. Everyone turned to stare at them as they turned on the radio and began to sing:

> _[Girls] Hey hey hey hey_  
>  _Listen up, everyone, I have some news for you_  
>  _On the outside, we're as different as night and day_  
>  _But if you took a look on the inside, you would realize_  
>  _that I'm just like you and you're just like me_  
>  _its time for you to open up your eyes and see..._  
>    
>  _Hey hey hey hey_  
>  _Here is your assignment, here's what you must do_  
>  _Find someone who is different from you_  
>  _Take a look at them and realize that you're both the same_  
>  _It's not about popularity or fame..._  
>    
>  _Hey hey hey_  
>  _Stand up and shout, dance all around, stomp your feet on the ground_  
>  _Let's get together and help Peyton Hanner win the crown_  
>  _Put your differences aside, put your pride on the shelf_  
>  _Reach out and embrace this brand new day..._  
>    
>  _Hey hey hey hey_  
>  _Listen up, everyone, I have something to shout_  
>  _The magical power of friendship is what this tale is all about_  
>  _Bravery, loyalty, kindness, honesty, and joy_  
>  _We're telling this to all the girls and boys..._  
>    
>  _Hey hey hey_  
>  _Stand up and shout, dance all around, stomp your feet on the ground_  
>  _Let's get together and help Peyton Hanner win the crown_  
>  _Now it's time to meet the girl who will inspire you_  
>  _To be a better person than you already are..._  
>    
>  _[Peyton] I'm going to say this as I know it to be true_  
>  _All I want you to do is just keep being you_  
>  _If we can turn this school around and make it a great place_  
>  _I know that's nothing that we can't do..._  
>    
>  _[Peyton & Girls] Get out of your seat and start moving your feet_  
>  _Get tapping to the beat and make it very sweet_  
>  _Get out of your seat and start moving your feet_  
>  _Get tapping to the beat and make it very sweet_  
>  _(everyone in the cafeteria is now dancing around and wearing dragonfly wings)_  
>  _Get out of your seat and start moving your feet_  
>  _Get tapping to the beat and make it very sweet_  
>  _Get out of your seat and start moving your feet_  
>  _Get tapping to the beat and make it very sweet..._

Cassidy stood in the doorway to the cafeteria, watching in fury as she saw everyone else dancing around the cafeteria wearing the dragonfly wings. Even the Sirens were dancing and wearing dragonfly wings, which was not a good thing.

Yet when she saw Dulce and Azalea dancing around in the halls wearing a pair of dragonfly wings, she flipped her lid. "Take those things off right now and throw them in the trash!" she roared.

"Why?" said Dulce.

"Because I have less than a week to get rid of Peyton Hanner and take the title of Homecoming queen or this scheme that I've been planning for the last three years goes up in smoke AND YOU ARE WEARING HER DRAGONFLY WINGS!!!!"

"Wow, Cass, take a chill pill," said Azalea.

"Yeah," said Dulce. "Besides, we can hit her back now while no one's looking."

"Oh, I'll hit her back all right," said Cassidy with a snarl on her face. She would let Peyton have her moment, then when she was at the height of her glory, Cassidy would crush her completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shameless Disney reference because Disney.


	17. Shopping Time!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shopping references because references

Peyton and Hedley were walking toward the back of the school when Kayla pulled up beside them in her car. A few hours passed since Peyton's grand début in the cafeteria. Everyone had almost forgotten about the bad videos Cassidy made that almost destroyed her. ( _Besides, no one found out that Cassidy, Dulce, and Azalea had destroyed the gym...yet_.)

"Kayla?" said Peyton as she and Hedley stared at her. Sophia and Kirsten were with her. "What's going on here?"

Kayla honked the horn. "Get in, loser! We're going shopping!"

"Where?" said Hedley.

"I think she wants us to get into the car," said Peyton.

"Oh," said Hedley as they climbed into the car and the car took off.

* * *

"I can't believe we actually pulled it off!" Marley cheered as the girls sat on the bleachers, watching the football team practice for the big game. "I must admit that I didn't think it would work."

"But it did," said Summer. "Thanks to us, everyone knows who Peyton is."

"Not yet," said Jacquelyn. The girls stared at her. "We have to move onto phase two."

"And what's that?" said Raina.

"This is the part where we show everyone that Peyton cares about the school and everyone in it, unlike Cassidy, who sees the school as her personal kingdom," said Jacquelyn.

"And how will we do that?" said Abigail.

"You'll see," said Jacquelyn.

* * *

At the mall, Peyton was floored by the amount of clothes that were sold in many stores. As Harry Potter, she didn't have much time for shopping per se, and she envied Jacquelyn for her ability to find and wear nice clothes.

But not today.

"Have you ever been to the mall before?" said Kirsten.

"Not really," said Peyton. "Why do you ask?"

"Because the mall is the place where you should buy your clothes," said Sophia. "And only with your friends do you buy your clothes. You wouldn't want to wear something without your friends' approval, would you?"

"Um, no?" said Peyton as she stared at a brown skirt wistfully.

"You don't want to wear that," said Kayla as she stared at the skirt, "not with your pale skin. Dark clothes make you look like a corpse."

"Remember, we only wear green on Wednesdays," said Sophia.

"Indeed," said Hedley with a frown on his face. He wasn't sure if hanging out with the Sirens was a good thing, but he didn't complain. After all, he had been a bird in another life.

After several hours of shopping, the group went to the boarding house (which was right across the street from the school) and put away several weeks' worth of clothes into Peyton's closet. Peyton frowned, knowing that no matter how hard she tried to stick to her old life as Harry Potter, she found herself becoming more and more like Peyton every day.

 _Maybe I should just give up being Harry Potter_ , she thought to herself as she watched the other girls chatting about other things and people they didn't like. _It's definitely not worth the trouble. Plus, with Cassidy being the only person who knows the truth about me and no way for her to prove that theory without Jacquelyn getting involved, I might as well let him go._

Yet she couldn't do that without having to let go of her old life, which she was not yet ready to do. 


	18. Cassidy's New Scheme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Cassidy plans to hit back at Peyton using another tactic.

The next day, Peyton was standing by her locker when she looked up and saw Cassidy. Dulce and Azalea weren't with her, which was a first. "Cassidy?" she said.

"Well, Peyton Hanner," said Cassidy, "you thought you could win them over with that little song-and-dance stunt, didn't you?"

"Well, that's better than those silly videos that you made about me," said Peyton.

"I see where this is going," said Cassidy as she glared at Peyton. "Two can play that game."

"I have no time for your games," said Peyton. "Unlike you, I'm taking this homecoming election thing very seriously. You're just playing in mud. Nobody likes a mudslinger."

"Well, good for you, Peyton," said Cassidy. "And with your singing and dancing, everyone's going to think that you're better than me. Well listen up, missy, because I can take everything away from you just as easily as you have gained it all."

"And I can do the same thing to you," said Peyton. Cassidy glared at her; Peyton wouldn't dare try to destroy her, not when she was still the new student. She would have to put an end to that immediately.

"You say that I'm a boy from another dimension, and yet, you're so much worse than Professor Umbridge," said Peyton. "The second I reveal your schemes to the school, it's going to be game over for you. No more lies, and no more bullying. You’ll be finished before the story is over. Got it?"

Just then, students were seen walking down the halls, effectively ending the conversation. Hedley said to Peyton, "Did you actually threaten her?"

"I know who she is just as much as she knows who I am," said Peyton. "and if that ever gets out, she will have lost what power she has over the school." She glanced over and saw Nicholas and Anna waving to her. "I say we leave it alone, as we have class," she said at last. But she knew that it wasn't over yet; not by a long shot.

* * *

"Who does she think she is, threatening me like that?" Cassidy snarled as she kicked over a chair in her rage. She, Dulce, and Azalea were sitting in an empty classroom, listening to Cassidy rant about being one-upped by Peyton once again.

"I must admit she had you beat," said Azalea. "I mean, did you hear the way she spoke to you?  _The second I reveal your schemes to the school, it's going to be game over for you. No more lying, no more bullying_."

"Well," said Dulce, "she can't do that without revealing herself to be a boy named Harry Potter. Or can she?"

"You know, you might actually have some brain cells in that empty head of yours," said Cassidy. She stared at a huge book with the name ANNA on it. She had stolen the book from Anna's locker during the musical portion of the story. So far, Anna had no idea that her locker had been broken into and her book was stolen. "And I know what to do about Peyton. She'll never see this one coming."

As the girls laughed, they had no idea that Julian was watching them from behind the teacher's desk. He knew what Cassidy was up to, and he knew that she had to be stopped.

After all, no Caster dared to allow a villain to run around the school unchallenged.


	19. More troubles for Peyton

"I have some awful news, Vice Principal Hill," said Cassidy as she ran to the vice principal's office.

"And what is the bad news that you have, I might ask?" said Rosanna Hill.

"It's about Peyton Hanner," said Cassidy. "She has hacked into my YouTube account and deleted all my videos."

Rosanna Hill frowned while staring at Cassidy; she knew that the girl wasn't even the least bit for real. Not when she herself had been causing most of the trouble that was happening at the school. "Students aren't supposed to be accessing non-school-related websites while on school property," said Rosanna. "Now please be on your way to class. You're already missing several days' worth of classes. If you want to remain in the running for homecoming queen, then you better behave yourself."

Cassidy grew angry after Rosanna shut her out of her office. No one was taking her seriously anymore! Something had to be done about this, and fast! And she was almost out of time...

* * *

"Who is that guy?" Peyton said as she stared at a tall boy who was sitting with his friends on the other side of the cafeteria.

The Main Six gasped in horror, something that Kayla didn't miss. "That's Matthew Davenport," she said.

"Who?" said Peyton.

"He's Cassidy's ex-boyfriend," said Kirsten, "which means that he's O.L."

"What is O.L.?" said Hedley.

"She means  _off limits_ ," said Marley, "as in you, Peyton, cannot date him."

"Really?" said Peyton. "Why not?"

"Friends don't date each other's exes," said Sophia. "That's like the #1 rule of feminism."

"That is a load of hooey," said Summer. "You expect her to not want to date him?"

"What's their deal?" said Hedley.

"Matthew and Cassidy broke up a few weeks before you came," said Kayla. "It was over him not wanting to be Homecoming King to her Homecoming Queen. We don't know if Cassidy has done anything terrible to him yet."

"What if she already has?" said Marley.

Peyton was walking towards the condiments table when she bumped into the boy in question. He stared at her, saying, "We really need to stop bumping into each other like this."

"Uh, hi?" Peyton said, her entire face going redder than a fire engine. "I'm Peyton Hanner."

"Oh right, you," said Matthew. A few minutes passed before he said, "See you around."

"Well, that was interesting," said Jacquelyn as Peyton came towards them. She then said, "We're going to deal with Cassidy. She's at Vice Principal Hill's office, and from how I see it, it ain't good." Peyton nodded as she stared at Hedley. What new scheme had Cassidy cooked up this time?


	20. The Inevitable Betrayal

"So I see that you two just don't know when to quit," said Cassidy as she face Jacquelyn and Peyton in the vice principal's office after school. "I know that the two of you were as thick as thieves back at Hogwarts, but this is ridiculous! What are you two trying to prove?"

"I might ask you the same thing," said Jacquelyn. "What are  _you_  trying to prove, Cassidy Newton? You kidnapped us and brought us here."

"Indeed," said Cassidy. She turned to Peyton and said, "When are you going to give it up?"

"Give what up?" Peyton repeated.

"The fame, the power, and the glory," said Cassidy. "Seriously, why don't you just give up?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Peyton. "You must be confused for someone else. Plus, YOU sent me here, in case you haven't noticed. I bet that Jacquelyn isn't the only Caster here who knows about me. The others know, and if you're not careful, they'll tell everyone!"

"You would dare!" Cassidy growled, but Jacquelyn zapped her and said, "Be done with your games, Cassidy! I know who you are and I know where you came from. Unless you want to be exposed for the monster that you are, you're going to sit down and shut up."

With that, the girls quickly left the room.

* * *

The next day, Peyton all but forgot her confrontation with Cassidy in the vice principal's office. She had other things to worry about. Mainly about her surprising crush on Matthew Davenport. 

"Do you know who he is?" she said to Anna during math class. Matthew was sitting a few seats behind the girls, but Peyton couldn't help but sneak glances at him every few minutes.

Anna said to her, "Matthew used to go out with Kayla until Cassidy stole him from her last year. You should stay away from him if you know what's good for you."

"I see," said Peyton. But she wasn't about to make any promises.

* * *

Within a few hours, Peyton found herself at the receiving end of Kayla's tirade. Apparently, a rumor had been spread about her secretly going out with Matthew, which was quite absurd because she didn't even know the guy at all, let alone date him.

"I can't believe you stabbed me in the back, Peyton!" Kayla screamed in fury. "I thought we were friends!"

"We  _are_  friends," said Peyton. "Plus, I didn't know that you had gone out with Matthew; I would have helped you two get back together."

"You mean, you don't go around stealing other people's exes?" said Kirsten.

"That is a bad thing," said Sophia.

"I can't steal other people's exes," said Peyton, "not when I barely know anyone in the school as it is. Who would start something like this?"

"Cassidy," said Hedley. "She's been doing stuff like this since we came here."

"I knew it!" Kayla snarled. "That scheming two-timing bitch has hurt me for the last time! Now she's even gotten to Peyton as well! I'm going to make her sorry that she was born!"

She then stormed away looking for the other girl as Peyton turned to stare at Anna. Anna shrugged, saying, "I told you to stay away from him."

"Why did you do this?" said Peyton. "How could you stab me in the back like that? I thought  _we_  were friends! Now I understand that you're just as bad as Cassidy is, with your fake stories about being bullied and such. We are so not talking to each other!"

She stormed away as Nicholas said to Anna, "You are officially the #1 worst girl in this school."

"Why?" said Anna.

"Because you done goofed," Nicholas said with finality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shameless Jessi Slaughter reference is shameless


	21. Everybody is going to get burned!!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which everyone in the school gets BURNED, no thanks to Cassidy and her minions.

"I knew this was too good to be true," Hedley said to Peyton when she told him that Anna had stabbed her in the back. They were sitting in the library, with Peyton recovering from the events of the day. Of course, with Peyton, anything could happen.

Especially when the incident involved a handsome young man who she barely knew and a friend that stabbed her in the back. "Why did this happen?" said Peyton.

"People like Anna are cruel," said Hedley. "They like to see others in pain as a cover for their own insecurities."

"This doesn't help me at all," said Peyton.

"Well, at least we saw what Anna was like early in the game before she destroyed us," said Hedley.

"You met her at the same time as I did," said Peyton.

"And I knew that she had issues, but not like this," said Hedley. "She is so going down..."

Just then, they saw the Main Six running towards them. "What's going on?" she said.

"We are in so much trouble!" said Marley.

"Why?" said Hedley.

"Anna has a BURN book," said Summer.

"And we're all going to get BURNED!!!" said Raina.

"Seriously?" said Peyton. "What is a BURN book?"

Rumor has it that Anna kept a secret book that has all kinds of mean things about everyone here at Strawgoh," said Marley. "I bet she started that book when we were in the eighth grade at Gelden Middle School."

"Boy, does she need a hobby," said Hedley.

"It doesn't matter," said Raina. "All we know is that if Cassidy gets her hands on that book, we're screwed!"

"Too late," said Summer as many students came toward the cafeteria. "Look!"

The students gathered in the cafeteria, not knowing what was going on. "Where's Jacquelyn?" said Abigail.

"She's not here yet," said Raina, "but I bet she and her cousins are plotting something."

Just then, Cassidy, Azalea, and Dulce were on the stage, saying, "Listen up, everyone, Anna has been deceiving you!"

"You lie!" said a random student as several others yelled.

"You think I'm kidding?" said Cassidy as she held up a huge book for everyone to see. "This is Anna's BURN book!"

Everyone gasped in horror as they stared at the book. They had no idea that Anna had the dirt on them for a long time, and now her cruel observations were going to hit them where it hurt.

"Give me that book!" Anna snarled at Cassidy as she stared at her book. "You have no right to it!"

"Really, Anna?" Cassidy laughed at her. "You really think that you have the right to keep your secret hatred of the school and everyone in it hidden? You really don't want me to tell the whole school what you really think of them?"

"Well, at least I'm not like you, who makes bad videos about you bullying other kids," said Anna.

"Your lies end now," said Dulce and Azalea.

"You can't do that!" Anna cried out. "That's against the law!"

"You think you can stop us?" said Azalea as the Casters came to the cafeteria. "We'd love to see you try."

"I have a bad feeling about this," said Stacey as Cassidy opened the book. The others nodded in agreement.

"Read it and weep!" Cassidy yelled as she threw the book into the air. Pages fell out and everyone scrambled to get the pages and read Anna's unkind remarks about them.

> _"Nicholas is the gayest boy I know."_

"But I'm straight!" Nicholas cried out.

"You weren't yesterday," said a random boy who was sitting next to him.

"Shut up!" Nicholas snarled in anger as the other students laughed at him.

> " _Jacquelyn is far from being the girl who cares only for disabled students. In fact, she once made out with two rich (able-bodied) brothers at a slumber party last month._ "

"Oh my God, it was just ONE TIME!" Jacquelyn cried out as the two rich brothers in question waved at her. The other students laughed at her and Jazmyne glared at them.

As many students read the notes and began protesting the contents of the notes, Julian knew that he had had enough of this. "Oh hell no!" he yelled out in anger. "I did NOT leave Hogwarts for this shit!" He pulled down the fire alarm and the alarm went off, sending the students running from the cafeteria.

"We are so dead," Peyton cried out as she ran from the place like everyone else.

"You said it," Hedley said sadly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fili and Kili (sort of) make an appearance in this story because...reasons.


	22. It's time to come together

It had been over a week since Cassidy's vandalization of the school gym; no one had cleaned up the place yet. (In fact, no one even bothered to see the gym due to the events that followed Anna's BURN book.) But now, there needs to be a distraction from the events following the BURN book episode.

Peyton found herself staring at the gym for thirty minutes. The place was destroyed by Azalea and Dulce, as ordered by Cassidy to discredit Peyton. Not even the janitors were able to clean the place. Peyton was staring at the homecoming queen's arch when the other girls came into the place and saw her.

"So, no one bothered to clean up the gym?" said Peyton. "Not after what Cassidy and her minions did?"

"You'd think she would want to clean it up for the dance, but she doesn't care about that, just the fact that she wants to ruin everything for us," said Marley.

"Still, no one's going to clean the place?" said Peyton.

"Not unless you want to clean it up yourself," said Jacquelyn.

"I would," said Peyton.

"Maybe we all should help Peyton clean up the gym," said Abigail. "No matter what Cassidy does or says, this is OUR homecoming, not HER victory party. She has no right to wear that crown at all."

"And neither do I," said Peyton. "Unless..."

She ran to the janitor's closet and grabbed as many cleaning supplies as she could. She was determined to make the place spotless in time for the dance.

"What are you doing?" said Raina.

"I'm going to clean up this gym," said Peyton.

"Not by yourself you won't," said Abigail. "Let us help you."

Peyton hesitated, knowing that as Harry, she didn't allow people to help her. Not unless they were named Ron, Hermione, or Jacquelyn. This time, however, she vowed to do things differently.

"Let's get started," she said.

As the girls cleaned the gym and put everything back in order, many other other students who walked by the gym saw them. And when they saw the girls cleaning up, they all pitched in and helped out. Within two and a half hours, the place was cleaned and decorated, ready for a homecoming dance.

Chloe and Rosanna walked into the gym and gasped in shock; they had never expected to see the gym be cleaned so quickly after Cassidy had the place destroyed. This was beyond a surprise.

"I don't believe it," said Rosanna. "How did you students manage to get this place cleaned so quickly?"

"Peyton insisted that we help her clean up," said Julian. "She would have been devastated if there was no place for the dance."

"I see," said Chloe. "And why did you decide to clean up this place?"

"Because I know that even though Cassidy is going to try to keep messing things up for me, I won't give up," said Peyton. "Not when I have so many people counting on me."

"She has my vote," said a student.

"She also has mine," said another student.

"I'll vote for her," said a third student.

As everyone voiced who they were going to vote for, Cassidy (who watched everything from behind the bleachers) snarled in a rage. She was almost banned from attending the dance, but for the fact that she was still running as Homecoming Queen. She said, "I may have gotten Anna in trouble and humiliated Kayla, but I still cannot get my hands on Peyton. What am I doing wrong?"

"Everything," said Dulce. "But I know how we can fix this."

"Good," said Cassidy. "The dance is happening soon, and we really need to pull this off. This time, Peyton cannot stop me, and if those Casters help her, I'll destroy them!"

The girls all laughed as they plotted their latest scheme against Peyton...


	23. This is Our Big Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Peyton finally tells Jacquelyn the truth about herself before the big dance.

It was the night of the homecoming dance, and everyone was looking their absolute best. The gym was decorated to perfection, refreshments were being served, and the music was being played by the local school band, The Flaming Droids.

All that was missing was the crowning moment, the moment when a girl would be crowned homecoming queen. But everyone was dying to know who was going to take home that coveted homecoming queen crown. Was it going to be the perennial winner Cassidy Newton, or would it be newcomer Peyton Hanner?

But before we can see Peyton at the dance, we see her sitting with the other girls and Hedley at Clothes Minded, a small clothing boutique. While everyone was getting dressed for the dance, Peyton stared into a corner with a worried look on her face. Hedley noticed her and said, "What's going on, Peyton? You're not having any doubts about running for homecoming queen, aren't you?"

"I don't know if I should do it, Hedley," said Peyton. "But for some odd reason, Cassidy is right."

"Right about what?" said Hedley.

"Cassidy said that I'll never fit in here," said Peyton. "I mean, she kidnapped us and brought us here to torment us. If everybody finds out that I was actually a boy, I'm screwed. I'll be finished. No one will want to hang out with me or even have me as their homecoming queen when the truth about me comes out."

"You talk as if Cassidy is already the winner," said Hedley. "You don't know how they're going to react to that story."

"Not unless we tell them first," said Peyton. "And even if we did, what are the chances that they won't believe us or they think we're crazy?"

"I still say it's worth a shot," said Hedley.

Peyton stared into a mirror for a long time, but the face of Harry Potter was staring back at her. For the first time in her life, she absolutely had no idea of how to tell her new friends truth about herself.

That was, until...

"What's going on in there?" said Jacquelyn as she stared at Peyton. Peyton turned to her and said, "What if I told you that Cassidy kidnapped us from Hogwarts and brought us here?"

"Peyton, what are you talking about?" said Jacquelyn.

"Let's rephrase that question," said Peyton. "What if I told you that I'm really a boy named Harry Potter and I came from another dimension, where I attend a school called Hogwarts? What would you say to that?"

"I would say that what you're taking about is insane, and at the same time, this is something she would probably do," said Jacquelyn. "I never liked her to begin with. If what you're saying is true, then I don't see why I shouldn't believe you."

She took a deep breath and said, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, we need to get you dressed for the dance." She grabbed a frilly white, light gray, and dark purple gown and tossed it at Peyton. "You're going to want to wear this."

Peyton stared at the dress; it had a flowing skirt with an empire waist and spaghetti straps. It was accented with a bow. Peyton frowned as she stared at the dress; it had been a while since the Yule Ball and she had never worn anything since that disaster of a suit Mrs. Weasley brought for her.

Then again, nothing could compare to Ron's horrible dress. But now was not the time for memories; she had other things to worry about, such as her taking the crown from Cassidy Newton.

After getting dressed, Peyton and her friends went to the dance. That was before Peyton had another chance encounter with Matthew Davenport. He said, "We really need to stop bumping into each other." Jacquelyn stopped it before it got out of control by pushing Peyton towards the gym and away from the boy in question.

"I don't know where she could be," said Jacquelyn when Peyton asked for Cassidy. The girls were on the dance floor, surrounded by scores of other students and teachers, who were dancing. So far, no one had seen Cassidy, nor did they see Dulce and Azalea. (Plus the Sirens weren't at the dance either, but that's for another story.)

"She's not here," said Jadenne as she faced them. "I've got Julian and Stacey at the east end and my other cousins Jonathan and Beterli are at the west end. They haven't reported seeing her."

"Do you think that she's given up?" said Abigail.

"Knowing Cassidy, she's got another trick up her sleeve," said Jacquelyn. "Let's just wait and see what she has planned."

"Or maybe we can forget about Cassidy for a second and dance," said Raina. "I won't have her ruining MY night!"

"Mine neither," said the other girls.

As the dance went on, no one noticed Cassidy, Dulce, and Azalea sneaking into the back room behind the gym. They were dressed in black clothes, with Cassidy wearing her customary outfit of a white shirt, pink skirt, black jacket, and her black boots. They were determined to ruin this night for Peyton.

Yet they weren't unseen, as Hedley noticed them and rushed back to the dance to warn Peyton. He wasn't about to let them ruin her big night.


	24. And the winner is...

The dance was in full swing when it was time to announce who the homecoming queen would be.

Everyone in the group was nervous, seeing as there was still a way for Cassidy to beat Peyton and take the crown. But no one wanted Cassidy to win another award, not if they wanted to keep themselves sane.

As Chloe went towards the podium with a small box in her hands, Hedley said to Peyton, "I don't know who's going to win the crown tonight, but I want to thank you."

"For what?" said Peyton.

"Everything," said Hedley.

"Hedley, what are you talking about?" said Peyton.

"We've been through a lot since Cassidy went us here, and I don't know where I would be if you weren't there for me," said Hedley.

"I've noticed," said Peyton. "I don't know why, but I'm actually happy to be here."

"Really?" said Hedley. "Why would you say that?"

"Because if it weren't for Cassidy, we would still be at Hogwarts," said Peyton. "I would have been Harry Potter and you would have been an owl."

"And you would still be living under the thumb of a cruel old man who wanted to recapture his glory days, especially if he messed up the wizarding world in the first place," said Hedley.

Peyton was about to respond when Chloe said, "Hello, and welcome to this year's homecoming dance." Applause broke out all over the gym. "Anyway, it's time to announce who will win the homecoming queen's crown. I will admit that over the years, Cassidy Newton has been the undisputed champion for the past two years, but tonight, for better or worse, that's going to change..."

"So everything's going to change tonight?" Cassidy hissed as the rest of the school listened to the speech. "We'll see about that!"

"Don't worry, Cass," said Dulce. "It's not that bad. So what if you won the crown twice? You've managed to win every competition the school had."

"I know," said Cassidy. "But I'm not going to stand there and let that little brat destroy everything that I've done..."

"Like she hasn't done that already?" said Azalea. Cassidy glared at her. "I mean, she united the school instead of allowing the students to live in their own cliques. She was nice to everyone when you were a jerk to them, no offense."

"None taken," said Cassidy. "Keep going."

"You said it yourself," said Dulce. "Peyton has destroyed everything you worked for. It's only a matter of time before you're out of here."

Cassidy sighed, realizing that Dulce was right. Her days at Strawgoh High School were certainly numbered, thanks to Peyton Hanner. But she wasn't going down without a fight; she was determined to get rid of Peyton once and for all...


	25. The Ultimate Girl Fight

At the same time Cassidy was planning to take Peyton down, Jacquelyn looked up and saw her cousins approaching her. Stacey said, "So far, I've seen nothing out of the ordinary, but things can change."

"Good," said Jacquelyn. "But I don't know how long this can go on. All I know is that Cassidy can strike at any time. We must be on our guard."

"Agreed," said Stacey.

"Even if Cassidy wins, she can still inflict some serious damage on Peyton," said Beterli. "Which is why we need to move fast."

Jacquelyn was about to respond when Jazmyne came to her, saying, "I just saw Cassidy and her stooges here! I don't know what it is that they're doing and I don't know what's going on, but I do know that they're going to do something very bad to Peyton!"

"Frick!" Jacquelyn snapped. "We need to move fast! Stacey, you and Julian go after Azalea. Jadenne, you and Beterli go after Dulce. Jonathan and I will take on Cassidy. We haven't a moment to waste, so let's get going!"

At the same time, Nicholas yelled out, "Kill the suspense, why don't you! I feel like I'm on an old game show!" The other students echoed this sentiments.

"Very well," said Chloe. "And this year's Homecoming Queen of Strawgoh High School is...Peyton Hanner!"

At first, the school went silent, as if the world had somehow shifted and the Sahara Desert had frozen. Peyton gasped as everyone in the school stared at her. SHE had been selected to be the homecoming queen? SHE, out of all the girls attending Strawgoh High School? This was beyond incredible!

"You mean...I've won?" she cried out.

"Yes, you did," said Abigail. "You've totally beaten Cassidy at her own game!"

The girls all hugged Peyton as she went to the stage to accept her award. "Congratulations, Peyton," said Chloe as she placed the crown on Peyton's head.

“Thank you,” said Peyton.

“Make a speech, Peyton,” said Rosanna as the crowd cheered.

“Ooooook,” Peyton said as she went to the podium. She stared at the sea of faces, knowing that this was her big moment. Finally, she had attained something for herself and not had it handed to her. She said, “I can’t believe I won this crown. I don’t know how it happened, but I finally was able to do something by myself. Not that I didn’t have help; I’d like to thank Jacquelyn Ritterwolff, Marley Collins, Abigail Hillard, Summer Edmondson, and Raina Gilpin for helping me get to this point. I also want to thank Stacey Palmer, Jadenne Black, and Julian Mercer for their help.” The crowd applauded. “I would also like to thank…”

Before she could say anything else, she heard Hedley screaming for help. Dulce and Azalea had snatched him as he stood in the back listening to Peyton’s speech! “Oh no!” she thought to herself. “Not Hedley!” But all she heard herself saying was, “They got Hedley!”

Azalea and Dulce snatched Hedley and ran down the hall. Peyton jumped from the stage and ran after him. Jacquelyn noticed her running from the gym and shouted, “Quickly, girls, she needs our help!”

At that, all hell broke loose as the girls chased Azalea and Dulce out of he school and straight towards the front of the school, where Cassidy was standing. They didn’t have any time to waste.


	26. A Big Nightmare

Hedley, for once, was not as helpless or useless as the fans saw him. He struggled as Azalea and Dulce dragged him out of the school. “What is wrong with you girls?” he yelled. “Are you both nicked in the head or something like that?”

“Now that’s not very nice,” said Cassidy as she approached the trio. Hedley gasped in horror when he saw where they were standing. He saw the same bronze sculpture that he and Peyton had came through when they had first arrived in town several weeks ago.

“OK, why are you doing this?” said Hedley.

“Doing what?” said Cassidy.

“I know you sent Peyton and me here a few weeks ago,” said Hedley. “Now you better tell me the truth: what are you trying to prove?”

“I can do what I want, not that I’ve got all the power in the world,” Cassidy laughed at him.

“No you don’t, Cassidy,” Peyton snapped as she, Jacquelyn, Marley, Abigail, Summer, and Raina approached the group. “Cassidy Newton, your reign of terror ends here tonight!”

"This is so not happening!" Cassidy snapped as she faced Peyton and the other girls. “How dare you stand up to me, Hanner!”

“Boy, does she need a hobby,” Hedley frowned.

“Oh, it’s happening all right,” said Jacquelyn as she and the other girls stood beside Peyton. “Go ahead, Cassidy, do your worst. I’m sure we can all handle it.”

“Very well,” said Cassidy as she snatched the crown off Peyton’s head.

“Hey, give that back!” Hedley snarled. “It’s Peyton’s crown, not yours!”

“Why don’t you make me, owl?” Cassidy snarled.

That did it.

Hedley pounced on Cassidy and snatched the crown off her head, but she pushed him down. “Azalea, Dulce, get that crown!” she yelled.

The two girls reached for the crown, but Marley grabbed the crown and tossed it to Raina, who tossed it to Summer, who tossed it to Abigail, who tossed it to Jacquelyn. For the next 5 minutes, the group was engaged in an intense game of “keep-away”, with Azalea and Dulce in the middle of everything. Cassidy found herself lunging at Hedley, who had the crown, but Kayla, Kirsten, and Sophia stopped her with a tap on the shoulder. “What do you bitches want?” she snarled.

“For you to leave our friend alone,” said Kirsten as she faced Cassidy. “Can’t you see that Peyton has had enough of your shenanigans?”

“I don’t think so,” said Cassidy. “In fact, I’m going to show you all who Peyton really is!”

“Oh, go ahead and try me,” said Peyton, who held the crown in her hands. Hedley and the other girls were standing behind her. “In fact, I’d love to see what happens when you put this crown on your head.”

Just then, Stacey, Jadenne, Julian, Jonathan, and Beterli came to the park, accompanied by most of the school. Peyton looked up and saw that Matthew was among the students. Julian said, “Your reign is over, Cassidy Newton!”

“Again with that?” she snarled as she snatched the crown from Peyton. “We’ll see about that!”

She jammed it onto her head and the crown (which had been silver with white jewels) turned black with dark purple jewels. Also, the crown turned her into a monster with a green body, brown hair, and a black and purple dress. Plus, she sprouted wings from her back.

“Oooooh schnap!” Jacquelyn cried out as she saw the monster. “Everyone, get back into the gym!”

As the students fled back to the school, Cassidy raised her hands and Dulce and Azalea turned into monsters with gray bodies, red hair, and wearing black and purple dresses with wings on their backs. The three laughing monsters chased the students into the school. Yet when they noticed that everyone was taking shelter in the gym, Cassidy summoned a bolt that destroyed the front wall. Everyone inside screamed in horror as they turned and faced the monster.

“Eeeeeewwwww, it’s hideous!” said Sophia.

“Hideous? That is so hurtful,” said Cassidy. “But no matter, since I’ve already won this game.”

“What game?” said Hedley. “Sending Peyton and me here? Destroying any chances for us to get back to Hogwarts? I know how you are, Cassidy, and I know Peyton and I won’t stand for any wickedness!”

“Indeed,” said Cassidy and Peyton ran to Hedley. “Harry Potter and Hedwig the Owl, you two have been a thorn in my side for far too long. I sentence you two to oblivion!”

She sent another bolt and aimed it at Hedley and Peyton, but before the spell could touch them, a magical shield blocked the spell and sent it back to Cassidy, sending her flying into the statue and knocking it over, destroying it. As she recovered from the impact of the shield, she thought to herself _what was that?_


	27. Friendship Really IS Magic

Peyton could hardly believe her eyes; the moment the spell hit her and Hedley, they not only reverted to their original forms, but the spell also hit Cassidy with a force so powerful, it sent her flying into the park, where she destroyed the statue.

She looked up and the crowd stared at her. “Hedley?” she cried out, but standing next to her was Hedwig the owl. She stared at Jacquelyn, who said, “Remember when you told me that you were actually a boy named Harry Potter in another dimension?”

“Yes,” said Harry reluctantly.

“Well, I must admit that you weren’t kidding,” said Jacquelyn. “And I also must say that Cassidy kidnapped me and brought me here, as well as my cousins. For what purpose, I don’t know.”

“Well, haven’t you figured it out by now, Jacquelyn?” Cassidy snarled as she faced the angry duo. “I’m going to use you two to take over the real Hogwarts!”

“And how are you going to do that?” Harry snarled. “You broke the mirror, making it so I can never go back home!”

“Oh, I have my ways,” said Cassidy. “I’ll take over the magical world with my own teenage army!”

“And how are you gonna do that?” said Kayla. “Can’t you see that nobody here wants to listen to you?”

“Oh, that can be arranged,” Cassidy sneered. “Azalea, Dulce, bring me my army!”

The two monsters in question raised their hands, and immediately everyone in the gym stood at attention. Their eyes had turned completely green. All were under her spell, save for the Casters and Peyton’s friends.

“As you can see, Harry Potter, I told you that I’ve already won,” said Cassidy.

“You said that already,” said Harry.

“Indeed,” said Cassidy. “And now for a spoiler alert: _I’m not actually going to take over Hogwarts_. I mean, what’s one little measly magical school compared to the entire magical world?” She raised her hands and the broken mirror appeared, showing a picture of a now-empty Hogwarts. “I intend to take over the magical world and rule over it as its queen,” Cassidy laughed as the others glared at her. “And with the help of my teenage army, it will be done!”

“You can’t do that!” Harry snapped. “Boy or girl, I will find a way to stop you! I always do!”

“I see,” said Cassidy. “I’m afraid that I have no choice but to destroy you. Say goodbye, Harry Potter!”

She raised her hands, preparing to destroy Harry and Hedwig for good, but Jacquelyn, Marley, Abigail, Summer, and Raina grabbed Harry and another magical shield was thrown up. This time, the shield knocked Dulce and Azalea to the ground. The other kids, freed from the spell, gasped in horror as the spell backfired and hit Cassidy in the face. When she recovered, she saw six people and an owl wearing a white top and a turquoise skirt. They also wore white boots and white dragonfly wings. Only this time, the dragonfly wings were real.

“Oh, give me a break!” Cassidy snarled. “Harry Potter, why do you keep getting in my way?”

“Because I know how to defeat you, Cassidy,” said Harry. “And the way to defeat you is through bravery (Marley), loyalty (Abigail), kindness (Summer), honesty (Raina), and joy (Jacquelyn). Plus, there’s one more element that you haven’t factored into the equation.”

“And that’s that?” said Cassidy.

“Wisdom, which I represent,” said Harry. He stood up and held Hedwig in his arms. The owl hooted as Harry continued, “You may have shown the school what you claimed that I am, but you also showed the school who you truly are! And let me tell you something, there is no place in the world for people like you!”

“How dare you,” Cassidy snarled, but Hedwig began to speak. “You say you want to take over the magical world? Well, Harry and I have seen what you were able to do without using magic! You once ruled over a small high school with tyranny, but it’s over now!”

Cassidy snarled again, but Hedwig turned back into Hedley. He touched the top of Harry’s head, turning him back into Peyton. They both joined hands with the other girls, which sent a blast so powerful that it fried the evil monster.

“NOOOOOOO!!!!” Cassidy screamed, but it was too late. She was enveloped in a silver cloud; as the cloud grew, the statue and the mirror were magically repaired. When the cloud cleared, Cassidy was found lying on the ground next to an unconscious Dulce and Azalea.

She said, “What just happened?”

“You kind of turned into a demon monster and exposed me as Harry Potter,” said Peyton. “Not that it matters because no one here will remember it. But I recall you turning me into Peyton, so there you have it.”

“Yeah,” said Hedley. “But while you deal with the consequences of your evil deeds, we have some more important things to take care of. If you don't like it, remember that you brought this upon yourself, Cassidy."

They turned and walked towards the statue with everyone in the school following them.


	28. Peyton's Big Decision

"Well, Peyton," said Jacquelyn as they stood in front of the repaired mirror, "you have a decision to make."

Peyton frowned as she faced the mirror. Unlike the last time, when the mirror showed her the face of Harry Potter, the mirror showed her her own face. “What’s happening?” she said.

“The mirror has the power to show you your true form,” said Jacquelyn. “When I was sent here and my cousins followed me, we all looked into the mirror and saw our true forms. Grofeus the Warlock had made this mirror so it would show you your true form.”

“So when I came here, I saw myself as a girl,” said Peyton. “I wonder why.”

“Because the mirror determined that a girl was your true form,” said Jacquelyn.

“Indeed,” said Peyton as she stared at everyone. They all stared back, not knowing that they wouldn’t remember seeing her as Harry Potter from Hogwarts. Jacquelyn frowned, saying, “I bet you’re wondering why you were sent here.”

“Why indeed,” said Peyton.

“This mirror is a one-way mirror, which I myself learned when I was sent here,” said Jacquelyn. “Back then, it was last year when I came, and my cousins came to find me a few weeks after I came here. But it had only been 4 hours between me going through the mirror and them going through the mirror.”

“And as for me?” said Peyton.

“You were kicked through the mirror and ended up here a few months after the incident in the Department of Mysteries,” said Jacquelyn. “And once you went through the mirror, there really is no going back.”

“Just like when Sirius fell through the veil,” said Peyton.

Jacquelyn noted her unhappiness, as she said to her, “Don’t worry, Peyton. We’ll find him someday. It’s still the world we live in, but only with more magic.”

“Yeah,” said Peyton. “About that?”

“Hey?” Nicholas yelled as he approached the girls. “It’s still homecoming night, isn’t it?”

“What are you talking about?” said Peyton.

“And the homecoming queen still has to lead a dance,” said Nicholas as he held up the now restored crown. “Which means the party isn’t over until you say it is, Peyton.”

“You’re right, Nicholas,” said Peyton and she took the crown and set it on her head. “I almost forgot that we were having a party.”

“And you still are the homecoming queen,” said Chloe as she and Rosanna came towards the group with Cassidy in tow. “Cassidy thought she could use tyranny and mind control to help her win the crown, but you have shown everyone here that being the homecoming queen isn’t about ruling over the school, it’s about getting people to stand up with you. You’ve certainly brought this school together, Peyton Hanner.”

“Yes,” said Peyton. “But I still owe someone a dance.”

“Indeed,” said Rosanna. “But as for Miss Cassidy here, she’s going to be cleaning up the mess that she made in the gym as punishment. Now come along, Cassidy.” Cassidy frowned as she followed Rosanna back to the gym.

“I love it when the story has a happy ending!” said Hedley. “All right, everyone, let’s do this!”

As the music played and everyone danced, Peyton couldn't help but look up at the night sky and see a constellation in the shape of a lighting bolt. The lightning bolt turned a dark color and altogether. She knew then that her time as Harry Potter was officially over.


	29. All is Quiet in Girl World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which this story draws to a close

Well, that's how this story goes.

With Cassidy's sudden change of heart, which was unrealistic when you think about it, Peyton realized that she too needed to change. She couldn't think of herself as Harry Potter, not while she had her new friends and a group of spellcasters who wouldn't stand for any wickedness.

Yet, there was one time thing she needed to deal with.

Cassidy was in the gym, cleaning up the mess that her rampage had caused; Dulce and Azalea were not there. Also, many students walked by the gym, giving her dirty looks as they walked. Peyton knew that Cassidy would have a long way to go before any of the students at Strawgoh High would accept her.

Peyton walked into the gym; Cassidy lifted her head up from where she was sweeping the floor and stared at her. "Have you come to gloat, Hanner?" she snapped. "If there's one thing I don't tolerate, it's gloating."

"I'm not going to say that you got what you deserved, but you got what you deserved," said Peyton. "I can't believe that after all the trouble that you caused, you thought you were going to walk away from this with your hands clean. That's not how it works in the real world."

"But I still have one question," said Cassidy. "Why are you staying here? Why didn't you go back to Hogwarts when you had the chance? Explain that to me."

"Why should I tell you anything?" said Peyton. "Do you seriously think I'm going to be setting foot anywhere near that school? Not on your life! And certainly not as long as Dumbledore is still in charge of Hogwarts. They'll have to learn to live without me in that world."

Cassidy was still unmoved. "What I don't understand is how you could be so special that everyone else is being ignored in your favor," she snapped. "Who are you really?"

"That's for me to know and for you never to find out," said Peyton. "Now if you don't mind, I have other things that I need to be doing, things that don't concern you. If I were you, I make good on what I promised everyone on the night of the prom."

She turned around and left the gym. But before she left, she said to Cassidy, "What you really need is a friend. Not henchmen, but friends. When you get done being by yourself, come find me. You know where I'll be."

Cassidy could only stare in shock as she watched Peyton leave the gym.

* * *

To make a long story short, here's what happened to the other characters in the story:

Dulce and Azalea expelled from Strawgoh for their part in Cassidy's reign of terror. In exchange for the expulsion, their parents sent them to two different high schools in the city. Anna was also kicked out of school and she went to live with her grandmother in the city of Zolliburg.

So that's their part of the story.

Hedley saw Peyton walking towards the library and said to her, "Is this it? Are we really going to stay here for good?"

"We are," said Peyton. "And why not? There's no place for us at Hogwarts. We don't belong there. And in the best situation, it's best that we forget our old lives and start all over."

"Whatever you say," said Hedley, but he knew that she was right. They needed to start over after years of false hero worship.

Or would that hero worship turn into something more?


	30. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is an epilogue

Well, we cannot end the story without having some sort of closure. So here's what happened next

Peyton caught sight of Kayla as she was walking toward her locker. Things changed since the homecoming dance and Cassidy's ultimate betrayal. Her sudden change of heart was also part of that deal. Also, there was a lot left unsaid between them.

"Hello, Kayla," said Peyton.

"What's it to you, Hanner?" said Kayla.

"I hope we're still not in a rivalry," said Peyton. "You know, since Anna used me to get back at you and everything that went along with it."

"Forget about it," said Kayla. "We're still hanging out with the other girls at lunch?"

"Might as well," said Peyton. "It's not like I'm going back to my other school anytime soon."

"Yeah, about that," said Kayla.

"Could we not talk about it?" said Peyton. "I don't want to have anything to do with magic or Hogwarts or even Harry Potter. I am so over that old life that it's not even funny anymore."

"OK then," said Kayla. "I understand. Besides, what's the point of you being a girl when everybody over at that other place thinks that you're a boy? You're better off as a girl.

"Yeah, I know," said Peyton. "So are we still friends?"

"You bet," said Kayla.

With that, Peyton was sure that life at Strawgoh High School was going to get better now that Cassidy no longer ruled the school. The next week, three cruel girls infiltrated the school with the intent to take it over with their singing voices, only to be eaten by a monster known as the Cthulhu.

OK, I was just kidding.

Anyway, now that this story is drawing to a close, let us say that Peyton was not only able to fit it in her new school, she helped the Sirens make peace with everybody, reforged the Main Six, and even put Cassidy in her place. But the story of her and her adventures in Strawgoh High was not over yet...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you have the end the story. Be on the lookout for more stories starting tomorrow!


End file.
